Escape: Paul Harding, a canteen worker at a top public school, sent vile child porn images over the internet

A canteen worker at a top private school , who was caught sending out 'depraved' child porn pictures over the internet, has escaped a prison sentence.

Paul Harding, 50, shared films of children as young as six being abused and had more images on his home computer.

He also visited online chat sites where he told other paedophiles how he wanted to 'groom' a child who he would use to recruit other youngsters.

Harding, a catering supervisor at prestigious Dulwich College in southeast London, was spared jail by Judge Andrew Goymer who was a former student there.

He said: 'You have escaped prison by a gap so narrow that you could hardly see daylight through it.

'It needs to be spelled out that when these images are produced somewhere in the world a child is being abused to make them to satisfy the depraved tastes of people who enjoy looking at them.'

Harding was handed a 16-month prison term, suspended for a year, and banned from working with children indefinitely.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police's paedophile unit swooped on his home address in May 2012 as part of an ongoing crackdown on online child abusers, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Peter Zinner, prosecuting, said: 'As a result of these investigations an individual was identified.

'It was further established that individual was Paul Harding and that he was in the employ of Dulwich Boys School as a catering supervisor.

'Because of his proximity to boys and the suspicion that he might be a paedophile police officers expedited the application for a search warrant and on May 3, 2012, police officers attended his home address.'

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Harding's Fujitsu Siemens laptop was seized and 22 images, 12 of which were at the two highest levels of severity, and four films at the second highest level were discovered.

One film, approximately two minutes long, was entitled 'Mum, dad and son'.

Analysis of the computer showed Harding had been talking with other paedophiles online.

Prestigious: Harding worked at Dulwich College school in south west London. The judge who spared him jail was a former pupil there

Mr Zinner said: 'The e-chat
demonstrated that there was discussion about the more extreme end of
sexual abuse of children and that there was discussion about a desire to
groom children, or a child, with a view to hands-on sexual abuse.'

In
one sick exchange, Harding claimed he wanted to 'groom a young kid and
educate him in the best sex going and get him to recruit young kids
too'.

Mark Bagshaw, defending, said the school worker had become entangled in a 'cycle of addiction'.

He said that since his arrest he had been speaking with Stop it Now! - an organisation aimed at preventing child sex abuse.

Analysis of Harding's laptop revealed he had visited chat sites where he told other paedophiles how he wanted to groom a child (file picture)

Judge Goymer, who declared his ties to the school before the hearing began, said: 'You should be under no doubt whatsoever about the seriousness of the offences you have committed and the harm that they have caused.

'It's very easy for people who commit the offence of downloading images of children to think it is a victimless crime.

'They think that because they are not touching the children, not in sexual contact with the children, that they are just looking at a picture, if you pause and think for just a few seconds you will realise that's not a realistic way of looking at it.'

Harding, of South Norwood, south east London, pleaded guilty to four counts of distributing indecent images of children, six counts of making indecent images of children and two charges of possession of a controlled substance after officers recovered small amounts of crystal-meth and the class C drug GBL.

He was sentenced to 16 months in jail, suspended for one year, and made the subject of a 12 month supervision requirement.

He was also ordered to complete up to 60 days of an internet sexual offending activity requirement and banned from working with children indefinitely.

Harding was told to pay £300 towards the cost of the prosecution and slapped with a five-year-long sexual offence prevention order, which controls his internet use.